Ninja Tune announces the Zen Delay FX unit: a first for an electronic music label

In what’s being described as a first for an electronic music label, Ninja Tune has launched the Zen Delay, a dub-friendly hardware FX unit.

Inspired by a trip to Superbooth, this is the brainchild of Coldcut/Ninja Tune’s Matt Black and his friend Dr Walker of the Liquid Sky artist collective, and it’s been created and manufactured by Erica Synths.

Zen Delay offers a BPM-synced delay line that offers extreme feedback ranges, a multimode 24dB synth filter and valve overdrive. This makes it suitable for creating dub and experimental lo-fi effects.

With one bakelite knob per function, the Zen Delay should be pretty easy to use; it was created in collaboration with DJs and producers and is designed to be used both live and in the studio. You can use it to add warmth and character to all kinds of electronic music elements and even full mixes.

“The Zen excels at the sort of extreme dub possibilities Coldcut love,” reckons Matt Black. “Feed it back!”

You can pre-order the Zen Delay from today via the Ninja Tune and Erica synths websites. The standard price is €499 plus VAT, but the first 300 units are being sold for €454 plus VAT and come with a free limited edition Zen Delay T-shirt. The units are set to ship in time for Christmas.